If porous things like certain ceramics are bad to use because they trap and grow bacteria, how come we can use the same sponges for things like washing our body and for dishes?
In: Biology
Sponges are very porous and have large openings. They’re also very flexible and malleable so they’re fairly easy to clean with water and soap that is readily soaked in and then you can wring them, squeeze them, and generally get the water everywhere and dislodge anything that may be sitting inside the pores. But the pores on rigid materials can’t effectively be cleaned with anything. You can’t wring a ceramic object and no brush is fine enough to get into all the pores, but bacteria can and will settle in them and eventually pose a health hazard. That’s not to say that sponges can last forever but the whole point of sponges is that you use them for a few days to a couple of weeks and then throw them out and use a new one.
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